Welcome to TheFishingReport.com Forum

Members Login
Username 
 
Password 
    Remember Me  
Post Info TOPIC: Report for the Week Ending 10/10/09 for Pine Island Sound


Member

Status: Offline
Posts: 11
Date:
Report for the Week Ending 10/10/09 for Pine Island Sound
Permalink  
 


<!--
<br /> <! <br /> @page { margin: 0.79in }<br /> P { margin-bottom: 0.08in }<br /> --><br />
-->
-->
-->

I managed to run two out of three
scheduled trips this week. It was a week plagued with equipment
problems that worked only because my old friend Terry Ryan, who was
on Sanibel for the week and scheduled to fish with me Sunday and
Monday, swapped his beast of a Chevy diesel truck for my car for a
couple of days, allowing me to get my boat to the ramp, and Terry and
his gang to get around on the islands. Terry and Michel, and Bill
and Dee, and I, met for dinner at Pincher's Crab Shack Saturday
evening. After a couple of hours of laughing until our sides and
cheeks hurt, I headed home in Terry's baby, and Terry and the gang
headed back to Sanibel in my baby. Oh, God. We do have fun when we
get together. And, the folks at Pinchers are right there in the
middle of it.


 


Believe it, or not, Terry's diesel
Chevy was the first diesel vehicle I'd ever driven. Oh, as a young
man I operated Cat D-8's and D-6's, draglines, and other heavy
equipment, and knew the virtues of a diesel engine, but still I was
amazed at the pulling power of that pickup truck. My rig isn't like
pulling a big offshore boat, but still it weighs in at around 4,000
pounds. But, Terry's truck didn't seem to care whether it was
pulling the load or not. You just couldn't tell it was back there.
I was amazed.


 


Terry and Michel were already at the
ramp when I got there, and it wasn't long before we were on our way
toward Kiesel's flat for bait. Bait had been good there on the last
few trips, but it was tough on this day. We got bait, but we really
worked for it. We wound up with a good mix of shiners, threadfins,
pinfish, and ballyhoo. Finally, we were ready to fish.


 


Our first spot, which is a place I love
to be when the tide first kicks coming in, was full of monster snook.
Holy smokes. I saw snook there that had to be pushing fifty inches
long. They looked like tarpon to the untrained eye. But, as is so
often on the full moon tides, they weren't about to eat. We waited
until the water was really moving hard, and still they wouldn't eat.
That's when we moved on.


 


Our next spot was a fun stop. It was a
veritable smorgasbord, and Terry and Michele caught all kinds of
fish. They caught a few trout including a really nice keeper around
4 pounds, a really fat snapper of around 14 inches, a flounder, a
redfish, a jack crevalle, and missed a couple of snook. It was a
good hole. But, when it's over it's over, and time to move on.


 


Our next couple of spots gave us
nothing but scaled baits and the odd catfish or two. We were
fighting the effects of our first early season cold front and the
full moon. I just wanted to be on redfish when they decided it was
time to eat. So, we kept at it.


 


Finally, we scored out best redfish
action late in the morning. Terry and Michele bagged several nice
reds toward the end of the tide. At that point we had quite a
potpourri of fish in the well, and we're just fried from the record
hot temperatures. We were ready to head to the Waterfront Restaurant
for lunch.


 


Those who have been reading my fishing
reports for years know that any day with Terry Ryan is an
unforgettable day full of fun and laughs, and this one was no
exception. We'd had a blast from start to finish. And, the next
morning we were going to do it all over again, except with Terry and
Bill.


 


By Monday morning, I was in love with
Terry's diesel truck. I was amazed at the difference in pulling
power with my 265 HP Dodge van. Terry and Bill were at the ramp
ready to go when I got there. Once in the water we discussed what
the plan for the day would be. Terry and Bill didn't much care what
we did. They just wanted to catch some fish and have fun. Based
upon their input, I decided we'd catch bait close to the ramp, and
then try to find a good big trout bite close to home, for starters.


 


We headed to what's known as the
Engineer's House at the southeast corner of Pine Island, for bait.
Bait was very tough, but we got plenty of shiners, pinfish, and
ballyhoo to fish with before it was over. But, I had a hell of a
workout.


 


With bait in the well, we headed to the
mouth of a creek that I love to fish for big trout on the outgoing
tide. And, we had an outgoing tide until mid-morning. The boys hit
a big, fat trout right off the bat, and I thought we'd catch plenty.
But, most of the rest of the fish we caught were just under the slot.
We worked that area over until the tide quit running, and then
turned our attention to snook on the incoming tide.


 


We headed to a spot that I love to fish
for snook on the incoming tide, but don't fish often because of the
long manatee zones involved. We had great bait, and a couple of guys
that could cast, but we couldn't get anything more than a bunch of
scaled baits! The snook were there, but they just didn't want to
eat. Again, we moved on.


 


Our next stop was to be for redfish,
but they didn't want to eat. We may have been a little early on the
tide for them, but I think they were just shut down because of the
conditions. Terry did hook a monster sting ray, though, and fought
it for quite a while. Finally, we broke it off, and moved on.


 


On further up in the Sound we continued
our hunt for reds in October. I settled on a spot that been just
full of redfish lately. The fish were there, alright, but they
weren't in an eating mood, either. Terry did bag one nice redfish
there, and we missed another one. Then, they quit showing any
interest at all. They just locked up. We were on the road, again.


 


I settled on another spot that has been
very good lately. We worked it hard, and our reward was one snook,
and one redfish lost. The fish were really playing hardball. At the
next spot we managed to strike out. There were plenty of snook
there, but they weren't playing. At yet another hole we scored two
snook. Again, there were lots of snook there. They're hit some of
our chum and scale our baits. Had a few baits blown out of the
water. But, nada. We hit one more spot, again with lots of fish but
no bite. Apparently, the first early season cold front, though not a
big weather event, was enough in combination with the full moon, to
shut things down.


 


It was time to head home. I was
totally fried. But, didn't realize just how fried I was just yet.
Terry and Bill were, too. Back at the dock someone commented on how
slow I was walking, and that was when I realized that three days in
the record heat had beaten me up. You just can't stay in summer
fishing shape when you're not fishing on a regular basis. Even Terry
noticed that I was not my usual self. But, he assured me that he'd
had a blast even though I was a bit off my game.


 


Terry and I have been fishing together
for years, and friends right from day one. He and Michele are very
special people, as are Bill and Dee. Terry and Michele's son-in-law
was recently injured in Afghanistan by an IED. Three of his fellow
soldiers lost their lives. Details of his condition were sketchy,
but Terry had just gotten word that he was going to finally be
shipped to a stateside hospital. I would like to ask each of you who
believes in the power of prayer to pray for his quick and total
recovery.

 



Attachments
__________________
Best Fishes! Capt. Butch
Page 1 of 1  sorted by
Quick Reply

Please log in to post quick replies.

Tweet this page Post to Digg Post to Del.icio.us


Create your own FREE Forum
Report Abuse
Powered by ActiveBoard